Khang stared blankly, looking at me in confusion, not understanding what I was saying.
I felt a bit embarrassed and gestured for him to look down at his chest.
Khang dazedly followed my gaze and saw two small points peeking through his shirt. He was stunned for a moment, then his face flushed so red it looked like it might bleed.
He shot me a glare, his eyes both fierce and pitiful, like a little puppy.
I scratched my nose and turned my face away.
He slowly slid off me, scrambled onto the bed in a flash, and wrapped the thin blanket tightly around himself, leaving only his messy head exposed to glare at me resentfully. His voice was a mumble: "The clothes are in the wardrobe, get a set for me."
I stood up, walked to the corner of the wall, and opened the simple wardrobe in the hospital room to get his clothes. Inside his small backpack, there were only a few white dress shirts and white T-shirts.
I held my forehead and sighed; this guy must be obsessed with the color white.
I picked out a white T-shirt with a large Pikachu print on it and threw it to him.
Khang tilted his head away from me, his voice a little shy: "I'm changing now, turn and face the wall. Don't you dare turn back."
I burst out laughing. Sometimes, Khang was adorably foolish.
Khang took a very long time to change his clothes, so long that I was about to lose my patience. Why was this guy taking so long just to change a T-shirt?
Just as I was about to turn around and see what he was up to, Khang's clear voice rang out: "Done, you can turn back now."
I turned around with a sense of resignation.
What was this kid playing at? I only saw Khang sitting obediently on the edge of the bed, wearing the Pikachu T-shirt and black trousers. He looked thin, pale, and small.
If someone told me he was the same age as me, I probably wouldn't believe it myself.
His face was no longer flushed as before, his expression very calm, as if the person who had been blushing with embarrassment wasn't him. If I hadn't seen the slight avoidance in his eyes, I would have truly believed it.
But I was happy not to expose him: "Take me to find Bang. He said he was going to find his family, let's go see."
Khang nodded obediently, got off the bed, put on a thin white jacket that was at the foot of the bed, and followed me out.
I stood at the main entrance of the medical area, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. The person who was supposed to be the guide was walking behind me, so how was he supposed to lead the way with me in front?
I found it both amusing and thought that Khang really was a bit foolish.
As expected, the foolish boy saw me stop walking and looked up at me, his long eyelashes fluttering, but he resolutely refused to look me directly in the eye.
I suppressed a laugh and said: "I don't know the way, I need you to lead."
Hearing this, Khang looked a bit annoyed, suddenly stood in front of me, and stormed ahead to lead the way.
Before we reached the refugee assembly area, we ran into a grinning Fat Bang walking towards us.
The moment Fat Bang saw Khang, his eyes went wide: "Oh my god, little bro, I finally found you. You have no idea, ever since you left, Phuong has been down in the dumps all day."
When Fat Bang joked, his mouth had no filter; he could spin tales out of thin air.
I saw him getting more and more carried away, so I quickly stepped forward and clapped him on the shoulder, saying: "How did it go? Did you find your sister?"
I clapped Fat Bang's shoulder very hard.
Fat Bang gave a forced laugh, understood my intention, and changed the subject: "Ah, I have to thank Comrade Vu so much. If it weren't for them, my sister and her children would have had a miserable life."
As he spoke, he pulled me and Khang forward: "Come on, let's go. Comrade Vu told me to come get you two for a meal. Let's go over there together."
When Khang heard what Fat Bang said earlier, his eyes kept twinkling, and he glanced at me several times. I was a bit embarrassed and didn't dare to look back. He didn't say anything now, but the corners of his mouth were slightly turned up; it seemed he was in a very good mood.
Vu arranged a separate table for us. The food was very simple: a bowl of thin porridge for each person, a few plates of very salty pickled vegetables, and some boiled sweet potatoes.
This meal was definitely not enough to fill several grown men.
I saw the people around us eating like hungry tigers and could only sigh silently. This was probably one of the few times they had a proper meal.
Vu greeted us and then lifted his bowl to slurp his porridge. Khang also seemed very accustomed to it, naturally eating his portion.
Seeing me looking, he raised his dark eyes to meet mine and said: "Eat up, or Fat Bang will finish it all."
The smile at the corner of his mouth dispelled the vague frustration in my heart.
The meal was very quiet; no one made jokes to liven up the atmosphere. The entire dining hall was filled only with the sounds of slurping porridge and chewing, a silence that was almost suffocating.
The meal ended quickly, and the others silently took their bowls and left.
A young soldier came to clear our bowls and chopsticks. Fat Bang, Khang, and I felt a bit awkward and stood up hesitantly.
Vu smiled: "Don't be so formal. We have important matters to discuss, we must make the most of our time."
The young soldier reached out for the bowls again. Since Vu had said so, we couldn't refuse and stacked our bowls to hand to him. The soldier gave Vu a military salute and quickly ran out.
Vu's tanned face showed a deep sense of worry.
"To be honest with you all, the higher-ups can no longer provide us with food supplies. The reserves we had before won't last much longer either. I'm thinking we can't just sit here and wait to starve; we have to find a way to grow more food."
We were all silent. Food and water were the scarcest resources now, yet they were things humans could not live without.
During the meal, I had observed Vu's area; there were few soldiers but many refugees. They must have saved many people along the way, and in the future, even more might come seeking refuge.
But Vu's team was slowly heading into a dead end. How many more people could they save? What would happen to the people who were already here? That was just how things were in these times.
I could see that Vu was a good soldier. The food my family had stored might be able to help them solve this temporary difficulty.
As for the future... as for the future, we could only leave it to fate.